Direction on Power

Psalm 15 Lord, who can be trusted with power, and who may act in your place? Those with a passion for justice, who speak the truth from their hearts; who have let go of selfish interests and grown beyond their own lives; who see the wretched as their family and the poor as their flesh and blood. They alone are impartial and worthy of the people’s trust. Their compassion lights up the whole earth, and their kindness endures forever. Source: The Psalms (translated by Stephen Mitchell)

 

It's all about the "why?"

Courage

To Live Courageously

Courage is exhibited when someone strikes out into unfamiliar territory where few if any have yet gone, and helps pioneer a new way of working and serving. [They] blaze new trails despite what everyone else around them is doing, and whether or not others join, they do what they see is right, at whatever sacrifice. When someone lives originally and courageously, it inspires others to examine their own lives and actions and find within themselves the courage to follow their own original paths.

Dave Smith

To Be of Use

Colin Powell on Leadership

Leadership lesson #18  "Command is lonely."

Harry Truman was right.  Whether you're a CEO or the temporary head of a project team, the buck stops here.  You can encourage participative management and bottom-up employee involvement, but ultimately the essence of leadership is the willingness to make the tough, unambiguous choices that will have an impact on the fate of the organization.  I've seen too many non-leaders flinch from this responsibility.  Even as you create an informal, open, collaborative corporate culture, prepare to be lonely. 

Colin Powell on Leadership

Lesson #16  The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.

Too often, the reverse defines corporate culture.  This is one of the main reasons why leaders like Ken Iverson of Nucor Steel, Percy Barnevik of Asea Brown Boveri, and Richard Branson of Virgin have kept their corporate staffs to a bare-bones minimum-how about fewer than 100 central corporate staffers for global $30 billion-plus ABB? Or around 25 and 3 for multi-billion Nucor and Virgin, respectively?  Shift the power and the financial accountability to the folks who are bringing in the beans, not the ones who are counting or analyzing them.

Certainty's downside

"No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty."

- T.S. Eliot

Colin Powell on Leadership

Lesson #13 "Powell's Rules for Picking People":  Look for intelligence and judgment, and most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners.  Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego, and the drive to get things done.

How often do our recruitment and hiring processes tap into these attributes?  More often than not, we ignore them in favor of length of resume, degrees and prior titles.  A string of job descriptions a recruit held yesterday seem to be more important than who one is today, what they can contribute tomorrow, or how well their values mesh with those of the organization.  You can train a bright, willing novice in the fundamentals of your business fairly readily, but it's a lot harder to train someone to have integrity, judgment, energy, balance, and the drive to get things done.  Good leaders stack the deck in their favor right in the recruitment phase. 

Colin Powell on Leadership

Lesson #12  Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

The ripple effect of a leader's enthusiasm and optimism is awesome.  So is the impact of cynicism and pessimism.  Leaders who whine and blame engender those same behaviors among their colleagues.  I am not talking about stoically accepting organizational stupidity and performance incompetence with a "what, me worry?" smile.  I am talking about a gung-ho attitude that says "we can change things here, we can achieve awesome goals, we can be the best."  Spare me the grim litany of "realist," give me the unrealistic aspirations of the optimist any day. 

Colin Powell on leadership

Lesson 2:  "The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.  They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care.  Either case is a failure of leadership."

If this were a litmus test, the majority of CEOs would fail.  One, they build so many barriers to upward communication that the very idea of someone lower in the hierarchy looking up to the leader for help is ludicrous.  Two, the corporate culture they foster often defines asking for help as weakness or failure, so people cover up their gaps, and the organization suffers accordingly.  Real leaders make themselves accessible and available.  They show concern for the efforts and challenges faced by underlings, even as they demand high standards.  Accordingly, they are more likely to create an environment where problem analysis replaces blame.

On "staying foolish". . .

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become…stay hungry, stay foolish.

Steve Jobs

When employees are seen as customers. . .

Tom Peters has been a guide of mine for years. I love reading his stuff. I like his Tweets.

He makes sense in a very down-to-earth way.

The two-minute snippet below is worth watching. I apologize for the bad fit on the screen, but you will get his message.

Let me know what you think.

John Wooden (1910-2010)

John Wooden was arguably the greatest basketball coach of all time.

But, beyond that, Wooden was clearly one of the greatest teachers of all time. Just listen to his players years after they played on his teams. Listening to Wooden is no waste of time.

The Invitation

Not long after I arrived at Central Dallas Ministries, I found a copy of "The Invitation" by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. Inspiring words.  Great, tough questions.  The stuff for authentically framing a life and a life's mission, or so it seems to me.

What do you think?

The Invitation
Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.


It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.


It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.


I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.


I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.


It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.


I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.


I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, 'Yes.'


It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.


It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.


It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.


I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

[This post is dedicated to the memory of Frank Edward "Eddie" Wilson my best friend growing up.  His memory still shapes my life.  His too soon passing still hurts.]

Mayor Wiseman takes the cake!

Just read this!

Amazing!

Talk about taking the cake? 

Anna Hill--community builder

Ms. Anna Hill is our partner.

She is the most important leader in the Dolphin Heights neighborhood just east of Fair Park. The new-found health and hope now being experienced in her community is due largely to her personal efforts over the past several years.

We've had the honor to work with her on an exciting mutual project over the past several weeks. She is something else!

Thank God for Anna Hill and for grassroots leaders like her all across our community. Anna Hill and others like her are key players in the work of community renewal.

Read more about this important leader and cherished partner here.

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Community and crisis

We watched in focused amazement the story of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 last Thursday.

Thanks to the heroic efforts and obvious skill of pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III and a host of rescue workers and cooperative passengers, everyone escaped the crash landing in the middle of the narrow Hudson River just west of Manhattan.

What a story!

Everything went right. Everyone rose to the occassion. The crisis of the moment drew perfect strangers together in quick, decisive, seemingly closely coordinated and effective action.

Everyone lives when most could have died.

Crisis fast-forwards the creation of community. Community finds a way to save life, even when it requires a miracle.

This is an event and a moment to be cherished, even enjoyed, celebrated.

It also provides a bit of a challenge to folks concerned about community renewal and re-development. Obviously, things don't always move quite so quickly in a community crisis. At times of violence or natural disaster, they can. And, in those moments of life and death, people often respond heroically and sacrificially.

But in the everyday moments, we don't typically step up so effectively.

Reframing our understanding of the current crisis facing communities in the inner city neighborhoods of cities like Dallas, Texas is essential to any progress, improvement or the saving of lives.

The crisis is real.

Name the sector.

Housing.

Health and wellness.

Education.

Employment--opportunties, training and wages.

Criminal justice.

Economic development.

Politics.

If we learn to actually recognize and face the crisis together, might we unite more quickly, less selfishly, more effectively and more heroically?

Captain Sullenberger, his crew, his passengers and everyone who witnessed and responded so quickly to the crash have me thinking.

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Myron Rolle: Emerging Community Leader

Not all college football players take their studies seriously. Some do.

Among those who go "beyond serious" on the field and in the classroom is Florida State University safety, Myron Rolle.

The New York Times' Pete Thamel told part of Rolle's story in last Thursday's edition of the paper ("For Florida State Player and Scholar, Game Day Is Different"). I think y0u'll be inspired and encouraged.

Here's how the story begins:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — By 5 p.m. on Saturday, Florida State safety Myron Rolle will find out if he is among the 32 winners of a Rhodes Scholarship, perhaps the world’s most prestigious postgraduate academic award.

At 7:45, Rolle’s Seminoles teammates will play at Maryland in a pivotal Atlantic Coast Conference matchup. Because Rolle’s final interview is in Birmingham, Ala., a private plane and about 700 miles will play an integral part in one of the most compelling story lines in college football this weekend.

Rolle’s decision to risk missing all or part of the game in order to be interviewed for the Rhodes Scholarship, and find out if he joins elite student-athletes like Bill Bradley in winning the Rhodes, has resonated deeply at Florida State. The university is in the final stages of dealing with an academic scandal in the athletic department that affected the eligibility of 60 athletes and resulted in three firings and self-imposed probation.

Read the entire report here.

On doing the "right" thing

People often ask me, "How did you know what to do as Central Dallas Ministries developed?" Or, "How did you decide what to do to realize the growth that CDM has experienced over the past 15 years?"

Good questions, I suppose.

With a very simple answer: we didn't!

I guess you'd have had to have been here pretty much full-time to understand.

One thing I've learned here is that at least 80% of everything related to progress is found in simply "showing up."

I like what Bernie Glassman says in his stimulating little book, Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life that Matters. Consider his wisdom:

Many people won't take a step until they think that they know what the right thing is. There is an expression, "Do the right thing." But how do we know what the right thing is? We can't know for sure. Maybe we should just say, "Do the next thing." And if we do that--whatever it is--to the best of our ability, chances are it will turn out to be the right thing as well." (135)

My experience tells me that Bernie is right.

On to the next thing then, okay?

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One-Minute Golf Lesson or Finding a Leader is Essential!

Leadership is beyond essential.

Most of us don't stop to consider or to understand just how essential.

Real leaders model new ways of being, new levels of performance. Leaders are consistent, hard working, diligent, tireless, disciplined.

I love this video.

When leadership disappears, everything slides back to "normal." And "normal" is seldom best.

Developing leaders must become a major priority for any person or group interested in community development or renewal.

Enjoy. . .and consider.

"Black Swans" and community

What we are up to here in inner city Dallas is the pursuit of a “Black Swan,” to use the term made famous by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the best-selling book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.

Taleb’s study of the strange world of truth and probability takes its title from the world of birds.

Until the discovery of Australia, Europeans were convinced that all swans were white. This Old World belief was based on observation and empirical evidence. All swans were white. . .until black swans were seen on the new continent.

The concern of the book is not bird watching, but to demonstrate the “fragility of our knowledge” drawn both from personal observation and firsthand experience.

The book is a must read, at least in my view.

So, back to our pursuit of “Black Swans.”

Every day we pursue what is usually seen by others as the improbable.

We believe that communities can experience significant breakthroughs that contain the potential to change just about everything. We believe in people and their capacity, no matter if they are trapped in poverty. We believe that inner city youth who grow up in very low-income neighborhoods can go to college. We believe public health outcomes can improve as community connectivity and leadership improves. We believe poor people can make significant contributions to the improvement of life in our communities. We believe that mixed income neighborhoods and development plans are better than economically segregated neighborhoods with their exclusionary approaches.

We believe strongly in all sorts of possibilities that more normal people, living in more routine circumstances would surely consider "long shots."

As a result, we think differently about just about everything around here. From education, to housing, to banking, to work, to spirituality, to what is ultimately most important.

I suppose this explains my affinity to a section of Taleb’s book dealing with community. Here’s part of what he believes about the importance of groups:

We are local animals, interested in our immediate neighborhood—even if people far away consider us total idiots. Those homo sapiens are abstract and remote and we don't care about them because we do not run into them in elevators or make eye contact with them. Our shallowness can sometimes work for us.

It may be a banality that we need others for many things, but we need them far more than we realize, particularly for dignity and respect. Indeed, we have very few historical records of people who have achieved anything extraordinary without such peer validation—but we have the freedom to choose our peers. If we look at the history of ideas, we see schools of thought occasionally forming, producing unusual work unpopular outside the school. . . . A school allows someone with unusual ideas with the remote possibility of a payoff to find company and create a microcosm insulated from others. The members of the group can be ostracized together—which is better than being ostracized alone.

If you engage in a Black Swan—dependent activity, it is better to be part of a group.